Assignment Group settings - *keep* the highest _n_ scores

Is it possible to create several assignments in an Assignment Group and specify that the Assignment Group should keep the highest _n_ scores? Currently Canvas Assignment Group settings permit "ignore" the highest or lowest _n_ scores.

I hope I am interpreting your question correctly. If not, my apologies. If you create an assignment group with five assignments in it, for example, and you wanted to keep the best three scores of the five assignments, could you just set the Number of scores to ignore for each student >> Lowest Scores to 2? This would ignore the two lowest scores in that assignment group and keep the three highest scores for all five assignments, right?

Hi Chris - Thanks for your reply. "Ignore lowest" will in many (most) cases behave similarly to "keep highest". However, there are some use cases in which ignoring or dropping the lowest will not give the expected result. For example, when an instructor wants students to choose to do some number out of a series of assignments (say they could choose to do 3 or more out of 7), the system will keep the highest 3 scores, AND students will be able to see the running total of their course grades (presumably to help them plan how many assignments they will need to do for the best possible score). Students' scores for the assignments in this Assignment Group will be n/300pts. In this case, dropping the lowest will skew the score until all the due dates have passed. Keep highest scores results in an accurate running total. I figured out a way to make Canvas calculate this way, but it requires the instructor to edit the number of scores to be ignored so that the total possible in the group is always 300 points. Perhaps someone else has figured how to get this type of calculation from the system.

Because Canvas settings can't keep an accurate running grade (as described in my scenario above) with the available assignment settings, I have entered this feature request to keep the highest _n_ scores in an assignment group:

I see that this original post was in 2015. I would like to rekindle the issue associated with the Assignment Group rule "Number of scores to ignore for each student" (which is actually "automatically drop lowest X scores). Right now, I am just preventing totals from displaying to students in the Gradebook, which is problematic - as is the 'dropping' (graying out) of scores that will ultimately be kept/counted at the end of the semester. Any suggestions on how best to manage this in the current system would be appreciated. Below is what I have been posting in a couple of other places as well. Thank you!

Here is my situation: I allow students to drop their lowest score from several of my assignment groups (1/14 lowest quiz score, 2/5 lowest critical thinking tasks, 1/5 lowest exam score, 1/3 video quiz scores). So, if students do well on the X number required assignments in each group they can, potentially, skip the remaining one(s) in that group. Alternatively, students can choose do all of the assignments in each group and then keep their highest X required scores in each group. I find that this not only encourages students be focused early in the semester (do well 'up-front' may = less work later), but also offers flexibility in terms of their balancing school and 'life' responsibilities. Students are allowed to miss one assignment deadline from each assignment group for any reason (sick, car trouble, have to attend a wedding, internet went down, dog ate my homework) and use that as the assignment that gets dropped from that group. It also eliminates the need for creating make-up assignments. Unfortunately, this also wreaks havoc with students' (and sometimes my) ability to understand their current course grade across the semester.

Presently, in my case, as students' grades are posted across the semester, the system automatically "drops" their lowest X scores for each group (based on rules set for each assignment group) ans 'grays out' those scores in the students' Gradebook. A case in point... I have a student who has already completed the required 3/5 critical thinking tasks this semester (90/90, 85/90, 90/90). However, two of these are grayed out in her Gradebook because the lowest 2/5 of these are 'ignored' – so only 1/5 is counted toward her course grade. This Gradebook issue does not resolve itself until the deadlines for ALL of the assignments in that Assignment Group have passed (near the end of the semester) – even though she is likely to skip the two remaining assignments in that group, and use those two zeros as her “dropped' scores. I realize, of course, that I could just set the Assignment Group rules at the end of the semester. But, as others have alluded to, students will think they are fine - until suddenly points (lowest scores) disappear from their Gradebook at the end of the semester.

A solution presented to me by Canvas tech at my college was to 'Set Default Grade' to zero for all assignments. This would effectively resolve this issue in the mathematical sense. However, to do so now (after the start of the semester) would 1) change all 'submitted but still ungraded' assignments to zero, and 2) likely freak most students out.

Ideally, there would be some way that the 'not yet due' scores were grayed out until the submission deadlines pass in each group. Would an IF-THEN kind of thing, integrated into Assignment Group rule option, work? Something like...IF "assignment is not locked" (in an Assignment Group) THEN "treat ungraded as zero"? This way (I think), all assignments would start out as zero (and grayed out) in the Gradebook and, early in the semester, the X number of “to be ignored” scores would (of course) be the scores grayed out in the Gradebook. However, as the semester progresses, and students’ assignments are graded, higher (non-zero) scores replace them and are included in course grade totals - while the “to be ignored” scores (I think) have no influence on overall course grades until their respective deadlines pass? Refering to the example case from above, that student's 3/5 scores would be counted in her total and the two up-coming (likely to be dropped) assignments have no influence. In that same example, if that student decided to complete a 4thcritical thinking task, and that 4th score was higher than one of the three previous scores in that group, the 4th (higher) score would replace the lowest of the first three in that group. Sadly, of course, this is not a perfect solution either - since students may interpret 'grayed out' as = 'not open to submit' or 'dealine has passed'.

Keeping highest grades vs. ignoring lowest is necessary in the following situation:

Students are required to submit three essays in a particular category. After the grade is posted with a mark up of the original submission, the students have two options to improve their score. One is to revise the paper and one is to submit a fourth, fifth, sixth, etc. essay but only the top three grades will count. Without a finite number of submissions the "Drop lowest" option would penalize the student who submits only the minimum requirement.